A private enterprise from Lviv Oblast approached the Business Ombudsman Council. The company reported that Lviv Customs adjusted the customs value of imported fiberglass mesh (country of origin – China).
The company submitted all the necessary documents to the customs, particularly, the foreign economic contract, invoices and bills of lading. The customs also demanded additional documents from the company, which the complainant quickly provided. However, it did not resolve the situation, as the customs reported a lack of information on identical imported goods and accordingly adjusted the customs value of goods and refused clearing them. The company challenged the customs officials’ decision to the State Customs Service (SCS) and asked BOC for assistance.
The Business Ombudsman Council took part in a video call with the participation of the State Customs Service and Lviv Customs to jointly consider the circumstances of the case. In addition, the Council brought up a private enterprise’s complaint for consideration of the Expert Group with the SCS, where the Deputy Business Ombudsman also participated.
In the end, during the joint review of the complaint, the private enterprise agreed with the customs that it should add to the documents a conclusion on value characteristics of goods, prepared by a state specialized expert organization. The company provided the requested conclusion. Finally, a positive result was achieved. Lviv Customs dropped its decision to adjust the customs value of the fiberglass mesh. With the Council’s facilitation, the complainant managed to defend the customs value he indicated and pay only those taxes he had to pay. In case of customs value adjustment, the VAT amount would be UAH 116k more.
After closing the case, the company informed the Council the following batch of goods had been delivered already without adjusting the customs value.
